


Flesh like Iron

by A26



Series: The Void [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Biomancy, Blood & Gore, Divination, Dystopian Future, Gun Violence, Science Fiction, Supernatural Elements, Telepathy, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 16:39:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7230358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A26/pseuds/A26
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an abandoned city lies an impregnable underground fortress. When ordinary troops cannot make progress, will a fifteen year old clairvoyant and a biological monster prove to be more effective?</p><p>Part 2 available now!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flesh like Iron

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NerdyTeddy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyTeddy/gifts).



A lot can happen to human genetics in a millennium.

The historical point leading to the current present was the discovery of "the void" in 2091. 

The Void, great chasm, eternal nothingness or the abyss, as some call it, is a seemingly empty body of space and time. It is a different plane of existence and the opening between the two worlds results in horrific catastrophes. Throughout the years of tampering between the Earthen life plane and the Void plane, came the acceleration of global warming, freak storms, ruined cities, mass worldwide deaths. Large portions of continents were engulfed by the rising water, portions lying ruined at the bottoms of newly birthed oceans. Forests would burn down or sporadically grow close to tears, be it in the centre of a huge city or the remote deserts of Africa. 

All of this within a hundred years of it's discovery. 

Unfortunately, the discovery and unleashing of this plane of life could not be closed from the Earth side alone, thus leaving the planet open and vulnerable. 

Over the years, the humans developed a way of controlling what came through the void, only in measured levels of success, through certain persons capable of tapping into it's power. 

These persons initially were the clairsentient, hyper aware children of the world, born with the ability to understand energies most humans couldn't see or sense. A subtle underlying presence available to tap into at any time. 

With the development of these children soon came a sense of worldwide stability once more. These children were able to forecast where and when the seams in the two reality would tear, allowing for better preparation and loss prevention. 

The world was from then onwards able to begin moving onwards with it's life. 

Sure, catastrophes still happened similarly to any natural disaster, but at least the humans who were able to tap into the void's energy were great warning systems. 

Fast forward five hundred years and these humans with the ability to tap into the Void's resources have been forcibly bred to accommodate the increasing tears in space and time, spilling out everything from locust swarms, inverted gravity in pockets of cities, bodies turned inside out and even blood red, acidic rain. 

The systems in place to use these beings for the betterment of the planet did not work. 

The human race realised that it is the very use of the energy of the Void that creates the tears. 

It's best just to leave it alone: the delicate stitches do not come apart if you do not pull on the fabric. 

There are, however, now as a part of society, some thousand years after the discovery of the alternate plane of life, a whole body of beings produced solely for war against each other.

Humans with extraordinary abilities. Mutations, even. Ancient words were dredged up from the archives of lingual history to dub these humans whatever humanity saw fit: witches, warlocks, spell casters, _demons_. 

It became illegal to use these abilities and all such humans are ordered into facilities where they can be supervised at all times. The use of their powers is forbidden unless prior authorisation is given and most of these humans live lonely lives, used only once in their lives for great wars or peacekeeping particularly bad aggression. These people are housed in a massive complex in the once Siberian tundras, deep underground. Once a child's powers have been established, they are to be reported to this complex immediately to control the damage they might potentially unleash. Parents who do not submit their offspring with this ability are subject to a death penalty. 

Most children arrive to the complex too young to remember their biological parentage. 

Such a child with extraordinary abilities is Eren. He is fifteen, and has only ever come into contact with two others of his kind within the conplex. He treasures their friendship, being the only thing offering all three of them human connection in their stone and metal walled facility. They are sometimes allowed to interact with one another face to face, but that is rare. Eren's friends rely on his ability to link their minds telepathically. It is not a particularly hazardous ability, but even so, it comes with it's own risks of opening holes in places they'd all rather not see. Thus, they do not speak often.

There is currently a global war going on in the world above the complex they are stored in, and he has been used twice now to help with this war. The remaining continents are fighting over what remaining space is left on their bruised planet, ravaged by more than just the void's energies. 

Eren's abilities, although mostly mild, still have a chance to completely rip open the access to the great nothingness whenever he uses them. It has fortunately never happened to him before, but he has witnessed other void witches fail in containing the energy they are accessing. Being what he is scares him, but he also feels a great sense of responsibility, despite his yearning for a normal existence. Multiple times he has pleaded to never use his abilities in exchange to enter society like a normal teenager, go to school, kiss girls, graduate and get a job. 

He knows it will never happen. 

In fact, most witches never make it past the age of twenty anyway. In the nights Eren can sometimes hear witches close to insanity babbling about what they have seen, their abilities having stretched wide a gap into the void and forced their view into the gap, showing them whatever horrors lie within. In the way they are used, they usually either lose their minds and have to be euthanised, or kill themselves in service or commit suicide out of misery or madness.

The idea has crossed Eren's mind. 

Speaking of his mind, that in particular is his ability. He has the ability to foresee future events, good or bad, pinpoint specific turning events and forecast disaster. Each and every time he uses this ability, he feels a tiny little piece of his sanity leave with it, leaving him more and more unstable as he goes. Fortunately he'd say he's still at a solid 95% of his original sanity, having only been used a few times enough to damage his health. The further he looks, the more it puts strain on him. 

Mikasa, the female friend of sixteen years old, is a powerful telekinetic, able to manipulate inanimate objects on a molecular level. She cannot control biological matter, but everything else is fair game to her strong abilities. 

Armin, the boy, the same age as him, is pyrokinetic. He has the ability to heat any matter using this power, be it from a kettle of water, combustible objects, even boiling a person's blood and organs. Armin is a force to be reckoned with, so he doesn't get used often. 

All three of them rank in the third ranks of witches. Fully realised with their abilities and able to control them freely. They are the most common. 

The first rank are unaware of their powers, most common in infants and young children without an understand of what they are doing who then develop and train their abilities into the second and third ranks. These first rank often cause random phenomenon; floating objects, animals following them, plastics slowly melting - which reveals themselves to their families who then would usually alert the authorities. 

Fourth ranks include those able to stretch further, do more for longer, the intensity of their power knows few boundaries. The repercussions however that come with this great power also reflect in what could go wrong from the opening of the Void. The more powerful the being controlling it, the more powerful the opposing force from the other side. Simple physics. 

There is only one registered fifth rank witch, that Eren has predicted he will meet on a war-tilting battlefield. He knows that the witch is a man, much older than he should be for his abilities, and the most powerful human vessel the Void has ever embodied. A fifth rank, closing onto a sixth rank as this one is, has mastered the ability he or she was born with, honed their skills into one specific branch of ability, and even spills out into others. The man has fifth rank abilities in one category, and second to fourth rank skills in however many others, Eren does not know. 

First to fourth ranks have only ever exhibited one type of ability. Eren, telepathic, Mikasa, telekinetic, Armin pyrokinetic, for example. They are easily categorised.

This one is rumoured to be something else entirely.

It doesn't take many more weeks for Eren to be called upon again, this time on an external appointment outside of the complex, chained by the wrists and ankles and robed to hide his face. Being such a witch has slowly become to be seen as a taboo in society. They are looked down upon and deemed as a needed evil, the scum of the earth. 

He is escorted by four men, the average amount for a witch of his rank, mentally and physically trained to be his executioners if need be. He will be taken to the edge of the battlefield and given a view of the entire field in order to predict the best course of action for their other weapon of choice, their rank five. 

The building the rank five will be set loose on, is a huge corporate office building sized structure, only underground and supposedly highly fortified. Mere humans have not been able to successfully infiltrate the building, so the higher artillery are being drafted for a swift victory. Eren will be the fifth rank's eyes and his ears, telling him which direction to go and where the enemy is lying in wait ahead of time.

Their rank five is humanity's strongest weapon of restoring so-called balance. It would be a pity to lose it. 

Eren is loaded into a secure van and transported to an airfield, followed by a four-hour flight to the city housing the site, ready for the infiltration. It saddens Eren knowing that the so-called enemy is a group of hidden freedom fighters looking to free his kind and stop the war by taking out corrupt leaders. The closer Eren draws to the site, he gets a sense that this group also harbour other rank one or two witches with mild abilities in hiding. Those who have refused to surrender their children to the law upon discovery of their powers, keeping them and raising them in secret for days like these. 

One look at the rank five and Eren knows instantly what that _thing_ is. 

Bio witch. 

Human body manipulators, blood boilers, biological menaces. So-called 'Dark Gods' in human form. 

His small, muscular frame is lightly armoured with a thin black Kevlar suit and his sleeves finish at the elbow leaving him hunching over himself and leaning on his grotesquely misshapen arms that stretch to the floor. His arms are stretched into long, pointed and sharpened blade-like appendages, a complete mess of cartilage and fused pieces of bones and flesh, red dripping down his arms onto the ground. 

The man's hair is jet black, shaved into an undercut, a white strip of hair from his forehead contrasting and gently curving through his hair. There are chains around his ankles and the man has twenty supervisors positioned around him. Not that it would truly be enough to stop him if they were all human, but Eren can sense that two of those are actually very high rank four witches accompanied by their own ten and eight handlers respectively. 

The witch's eyes are completely white, probably blinded by the use of his abilities, hence where Eren has now come into play. He will serve as this monstrosity's eyes as he takes down the innocent with unyielding blows. 

Compassion toward the enemy is forbidden. If he disobeys, he will be slaughtered on the spot. Conditioned into using his abilities for his captor's sole needs, he is escorted closer to the rank five, all escorts wary of the being's existence, not wanting to get too close. The feeling Eren gets when he approaches is that this man's senses, aside from his sight, are highly attuned to every single smell, sound and motion. His sense of touch and vibration, standing barefoot on the ashen ground, is the biggest asset of his, twisting slowly at his approach, long spined nails dragging in the dirt slightly.

Eren feels a denseness emanating from the man, feeling his aura penetrating him and dissecting his mind without even exerting any force. It feels imposing at first, but Eren soon senses that the man is evaluating his worth on the battlefield. It feels sad knowing this man is so lost to the forces gripping him, conditioned so harshly into becoming a weapon that he barely remembers himself. 

It becomes clear that the witch has powers similar to his own, perhaps even of the same rank, which perplexes him somewhat. Only when the man's words find their way into the forefront of his mind does he realise why he is here.

"I'm going to kill every last one of these handlers," the witch said, mouth not moving. It was clear the other witches were listening too, but his glassy white eyes were fixed directly on Eren. "You can get out of the way or die with them."

Eren focused on attempting to respond, but the witch's mind was like an iron wall. He couldn't penetrate it if he tried, so he would have to respond verbally. The witch sensed the response before it came and he was speaking again, this time, directly to Eren.

"Save your words. Let's go."

The group of handlers escorted the four witches through the deserted city scape, half of it wiped flat by void energy or phenomenon. The ground was painted grey with the incinerated remains of what lived and lay before the destruction. The air was still, no birds or animals nearby, long having since fled upon sensing the strong force in chains walking ahead of Eren in a slow shuffle.

"You know the drill," one of the handlers yelled from their position a few metres out. The short man lifted a hand, making all of the handlers flinch and brace themselves for the worst. It was a simple movement but Eren felt the void energy moving in the air as the man's ankle bindings twisted off his legs into mess of scrambled scrap metal on the ground. It was frightening that this man was so obedient, given his abilities. Well trained and deadly as a viper, but obedient like a pet dog.

Eren felt the energy shift once more and the non-cursed human handlers unfastened the safeties on their guns, slowly approaching the entrance to the sub-building they were there to infiltrate. One of the soldiers gestured for the rank five to enter first, Eren following closely behind. As soon as Eren was inside and alone with the rank five, he felt the mental wall drop around him, allowing for dialogue. Eren chose against it, intimidated and intrigued all at the same time.

The man sensed the curiosity and spoke verbally this time, his voice low and deliberate. 

"My name is Levi. I suppose you already knew that." 

"No," Eren said. The name was one of the only details he hadn't foreseen. It was only a glimpse he'd been granted whilst foreseeing something else. It was however unnerving knowing that this man probably knew the same, if not more information than Eren did. Why bother having him here if he was powerful enough to achieve this alone? Why ask a question you already know the answer to? Eren allowed himself to try a quick read over the man, and to his surprise he allowed it, letting Eren get a feel for how powerful he was in each discipline of his ability. 

Eren couldn't tell how those abilities might manifest, but he had the feeling he was about to find out. 

A radio strapped to Levi's chest sounded, spilling with instructions from their handlers. 

"You may commence, enter." 

Levi's words sounded out through Eren's mind again, soft and wispy, strangely reassuring. 

"Let's go." 

Eren admired how Levi was able to control his more minor abilities without any interference from the void, having long since mastered them to the point where anomalies were extremely rare to non existent. He had witnessed a pyrokinetic engulf her entire body with flames for the sole purpose of becoming a martyr - the power she put out enough to take out the enemy, at the cost of her own life. It was frightening to see the full force of the void channeled through a human vessel. He hoped to not see the full wrath of Levi's power, knowing full well he could very well open enough tears to consume half of the planet.

That was the worst case scenario, at least for humanity as a whole. On a more personal level anyone around him, including himself might just twist inside out - slowly so. Eren had seen plenty of unpleasant things happen, be it in person or through his foresight. He had saved many lives by instructing his friends not to perform certain 'spells'. Ones he knew they would mess up and damage the space and time holding the two realms so closely together. 

The ground floor level was deserted, a long dusty marble foyer leading through to the set of elevators. The power was off, the entire area dark and musky with age, but Levi morphed his left arm back into shape, a few rogue spines still splitting out of the flesh of his forearm. Genetic mutations created on the bodies of those adept at channeling void energy were common and it seems Levi was no exception. He held his palm up, creating a small sphere of matter before him, bleeding out from his skin and to the air above his head, the sphere emitting a bright light that followed overhead just in front of him. As soon as the ball of light was created, Levi's hand fell to his side, growing out into a sharp spear again, bones cracking and tendons ripping as it did so.

Levi seemed to show no sign of discomfort at the change, probably accustomed to the pain, or numb to it entirely, another side effect possible.

The team of handlers were close behind, accompanying the two fourth ranks who were remaining quiet. One was shrouded from the eyes down, so for all Eren knew he probably didn't possess a jaw any more, another exchange of mass for mass from the void.

Levi paused, the light above him dimming as all of the handlers caught up, aware that the space was vacant. The tips of Levi's hair begun to raise, as if channeling static electricity, and he barely moved as Eren felt the air around him turn thin and still. 

"Hey, what are you-" one of the fourth rank witches attempted to say, cutting off into a choke. One look around at all of the perplexed and grotesquely hollowing faces of every single one of his handlers, including the two rank fours, and Eren understood what was happening. 

Like something out of a bad dream, Eren watched in horror as the group surrounding the two of them begun to grasp at their throats, faces, the air in front of them, anything. A few fell to their knees before others, a few collapsed, but their fates were all the same. Blood exploded from noses and tears of red streamed from a few faces. It was over as soon as it had started, a mass of bodies surrounding the pair. Eren turned see whether Levi was finished yet, and the tips of his hair were still stood outward, the void still working in and through his small body. Eren flinched as the bodies lying on the ground compressed and splattered out into every direction, a mess of red and gore spreading out like grotesque human milkshakes. 

Having thought it was over before being met with such a macabre ability of instantly deconstructing twenty human bodies at once, Eren felt his stomach lurch and he hunched over, retching, although nothing but bile came out. Coughing hard and spitting the acidic taste from his mouth, (it would linger like an unwelcome reminder for hours), Eren stood on weak legs to look back at the rank five. 

"They would have compromised us, even the fours," Levi explained, however it did little to quell the churning in Eren's stomach around so much red, the smell seeping into his senses the more he breathed it in, iron thick in the air. 

"Let's continue," Levi said and Eren followed, glad to get away from the some twenty puddles around them. 

To distract himself from the disturbing memory, Eren took a mental scan of the building - as far down as fifty floors was what he was able to sense without pushing himself. The floor plans he was briefed with prior to arrival had told him to expect sixty, so he was close. He drew in what power he could, limiting how far he searched for life forms and weaponry within the complex across the first thirty floors, not wanting to stretch himself too far and create an anomaly. The void was on his side, giving him a clear imprinted memory of the scanned floors, projecting the image to the front of Levi's mind telepathically.

"You are capable of so much more," Levi said to him as they approached the out of service elevators. Eren looked at them and furrowed his brows, looking around for a power source or the mains supply. Levi had other plans, however. He closed his eyes and the ground gently vibrated, his entire body emitting small waves of static electricity. Eren had heard of bio witches with this ability, but he'd never seen it in the flesh. The lights flickered and Levi shuddered as he channeled a large gust of energy big enough to blast outward in a quick wave, switching on everything in a ten meter radius. 

Some of the elevators 'ding'ed to life and opened, others tried and failed to open their doors and a few more were unresponsive. Levi's abilities didn't have a 100% success rate, but at least they would get the two of them to where they were going - in one piece. Eren felt both intimidated and safe with this man, despite his cagey demeanor. 

"You coming, brat?" He snapped, already inside an elevator. 

Levi selected the twentieth sub-floor and the lift creaked into life, slowly running them both down into the belly of the complex. 

"Why twenty?" Eren asked as they waited, the descent feeling like a lifetime. 

"It's the most heavily armed," was the curt response. Eren paled, hoping not to be shot dead as soon as the doors opened. The lift creaked to a halt and Levi's left arm stretched out and the bones cracked and spread out into a large, grisly meat shield, spanning out in front of the both of them. Pieces of metal from the elevator shook and peeled from the walls, the force of Levi's morph having the energy to disrupt the nearby substances. Eren found himself in awe of how well trained this man was, able to affect the metal and nothing else, (namely pieces of himself,) pulling it into the flesh on his arm as it flattened out into a gnarly makeshift shield of bone, cartilage and scraps of sheet metal. 

Levi told him to duck behind his shield, close to his body, and so he did. Eren found he was significantly taller than the bio witch, having to hunch down a little to ensure his head was protected. 

As promised, as soon as the doors opened, a large barrage of machine gun fire pelted into Levi's shield. His arm shook as he held it steady, vibrating as it absorbed the shock from the force. It felt like an eternity of shots, the opponent clearly firing in two, three teams, never allowing reloading to be an issue. There was either a large number of people out in the corridor, or a small group with huge guns. 

"Are we just going to sit here?" Eren yelled to Levi, the pattering and clinks against his arm muffling most of his volume. 

The shorter male turned his head to the side to yell back: "only if you don't make yourself useful and make them a little bit more... agreeable."

Eren frowned, but focused on the idea nonetheless. He'd never performed this one on more than one person at a time, nor did he have a gauge for how far away they were since all the gunfire was messing with his senses. He'd just have to blindly feel his way through it, stretching his feelers out to get an accurate sense of how many bodies were in need of manipulating. 

There was a noticeable difference in the gunfire when whatever Eren was doing began to take effect on their opponents. They grew slightly confused as to why they were firing, and stopped, eventually all of them looking at their guns and lowering them, looking at each other and then back again, their entire being perplexed for a moment, their confusion etched onto their faces. 

"Good job," Levi said as he allowed his broken shield to fall off, a massive heap of gore lying on the gap between the level floor and the elevator, still smoking from all of the close-range bullets embedded inside it. The 'enemy' was a group of five ordinary humans, no connections to the void whatsoever that Eren could detect, dressed in dark clothes with tightly wrapped masks and goggles over their faces. The one thing they shared in common was the double winged emblem strapped to their arms with a green strip of cloth. They had makeshift barricades staggered through the hallway, fronted with a large mounted automatic gun, most likely the main source of all the noise.

Still wary, Eren crept closer, keeping closely behind Levi, who by the time he'd closed the distance had returned both arms to normal, his dense aura dissipating only slightly with the lack of active void energy coursing through him. The five people were still a little dazed and confused, but as soon as Levi spoke the effect of Eren's influence wore off like a bucket of cold water tossed over you in the warmth of sleep. 

"Where's Commander Smith?" He asked. 

A shorter body stood from behind their makeshift desk bulwark, pulling their mask off to reveal a loosely tied ginger ponytail, pale skin and a young, lightly freckled face. She didn't look much older than twenty, possibly younger. 

"That's Levi!" she whispered loudly under her breath to one of the others, who was also removing their mask, the young man making a snide remark about 'already knowing that'. While they were nervous, the small team of fighters stood, revealing themselves with guns lowered. Eren slowly moved to the side, being careful not to make any sudden movements. He didn't fancy getting shot so soon into their mission. Although the group before them didn't trust them by any stretches of the imagination, they didn't reach for their guns again, cautious glares their only means of greeting. 

"This way," the younger redhead said, leading the pair through the barricade. There were a few generators working on this floor, a few rooms dotted with emergency lighting and lamps. A lot of entrances were blocked off with office tables and chairs, bolting doors shut and nesting themselves within the building. 

The woman didn't make conversation as she led them through the building's core, down a small set of metal steps to a silver service elevator. The lights flickered around them, but the elevator was perfectly operational. Eren noticed multiple cameras dotted around the building, red lights leering at them through the darkness, suggesting whoever this 'Commander' was, he had eyes everywhere they went. It would explain why only their level had seen defense. Eren would be surprised if this group of resistance fighters had the entire building manned, especially since he didn't sense heavy coverage. The pre-mission brief stated this complex was heavily armed but it seemed less like an army was defending it, and more of a select group of elite soldiers. 

The woman gestured to the elevator and both witches entered. The woman leant inside and tapped a button for the fortieth sub-floor, sending them lower still. She didn't join them for the ride. Levi had his eyes closed for the most part and Eren could sense the gentle sways of void energy swirling around him in gentle ebbs and flows. It was almost as if merely existing was an exertion for this man, his very essence stitched roughly to one of those very tears in the great nothingness. Even his breathing might damage something around him. 

Levi was too disciplined to allow that to happen. 

Once the elevator came to a slow halt, Eren observed that Levi wasn't resuming his defensive stance, rather remaining completely neutral, no weaponry at all. No hostility in his energy. The doors opened to reveal a tall blonde man, well groomed, thick eyebrows and good posture, muscular and clothed in utility pants and a rough cotton shirt. He had a dark green emblem hanging around his neck hung over the fabric of his shirt in plain display. 

Eren couldn't very well sense how attuned to the void this man was. He felt as if he could have basic awareness of it, but no control. He certainly wasn't an idiot, but nor was he a witch. 

'Hello," he said, voice calm and clipped. "I trust you had no issues getting here?" 

Levi shook his head in response. Eren remained quiet. 

"We've been expecting you, please, follow me." 

Levi seemed to trust the man, so Eren followed behind closely. They were led through the building, deserted office spaces decked out with camp beds, sections with makeshift crate tables and sheet metal room dividers, folded clothes, ammunition, sheets of paper and laptops everywhere. Eren heard Levi clicking his tongue in disgust when they walked past a knocked over bin in the hallway, stepping around littered rubbish and discarded food. 

They were led into a long, dark conference room with three huge screens set up at the end with displays of maps and data. It made no sense to Eren, so he didn't look at it too much. The board table was set up with ropes of wires leading into laptops, a few other people working around them, fixed onto their screens as they tapped away in advanced coding screens. Any power they did have seemed to be hooked into surveillance across what looked like half the planet. They had bodies everywhere, with individual pinpoints on all of their vitals. Probably internally chipped for tracking. 

The commander stood at the end of the table near the door in which they had entered, the armored and robed figures following him in. Eren found himself sticking closely to the higher ranking witch, be it subconsciously or not, he wasn't sure. He felt safe near him, despite his power. Multiple times he had shown Eren he meant him no harm for the time being, even to the point of bringing him on an escape mission. Whether it was intentional or not, Eren wasn't sure. His foresight still left out details, so often he found himself guessing. 

"Welcome to the resistance."

**Author's Note:**

> As always if you enjoyed, leave a comment or a kudo, I will take them and treasure them and re-distribute around the fandom, as you do. 
> 
> Or come pester me, I'm agent-2-6 on tumblr.


End file.
